Human trafficking is the trade in humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, but also for forced labor or organ harvesting. Victims may be kidnapped, coerced, sold by their parents, or lured by false promises, to be held against their wills and exploited.

Most victims are young girls—usually between 12 and 14—kidnapped and sold to work as sex slaves in a $30-billion underground industry that hides in the dark corners of more than 160 nations. It is possible that girls from your hometown have been victimized. Girls are controlled through emotional and physical abuse, drugs, and pressure to provide financially for siblings and parents in poverty-stricken villages.

We are working to provide prevention, freedom, salvation and new lives for trafficked young girls and women.

Since many girls are sold or leave their families due to economic pressure and culturally-accepted obligations to support siblings and aging parents, we form strategic partnerships with indigenous ministries that serve in Southeast Asian villages to:

• Educate at-risk children and families about the realities of the sex industry, including the abuse, loss of dignity, and increased risk of disease and death that awaits those who enter this lifestyle.

• Promote economic development in supply communities, helping families provide more effectively for their own needs and reducing the incentive to sell daughters into sex slavery.

• Preach the gospel, the only real power that is capable of breaking centuries-old thinking and destructive cultural practices.